Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
Tivoli striker Roland Dean is fouled as he tries to get between Harbour View's Donald Stewart (left) and Jermaine Taylor in the second leg semi-final of the Wray and Nephew National Premier League football competition at the National Stadium yesterday. Tivoli won 2-1 for a 5-2 aggregate victory. - IAN ALLEN /STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
DEFENDING WRAY and Nephew National Premier League champions Tivoli Gardens remained on course for a repeat after defeating Harbour View 5-2 on aggregate after last night's second-leg semi-final at the National Stadium.
The game ended 2-1 after Tivoli ravaged the 'Stars of the East' in a second-half blitz that ended their hopes of making it to a second consecutive final.
Christopher Jackson pulled a brilliant free-kick out of the bag in the 57th minute to give Tivoli a much needed cushion after their 3-1 victory in the first-leg, before substitute Kemar Mills, for the second time in the semis, came on to seal the deal, in the 65th minute.
The substitutes were in the thick of things as it was Sean Fraser who came off the bench to pull one back for Harbour View in the 80th minute.
In truth, all the goals came in the second half because all the football was played in that period.
With a two-goal deficit from the first-leg Harbour View never got going and their offensive game was unimaginative, to say the least.
What they did manage was to be more physical, which led to three yellow cards for the 'Stars of the East' in the first-half alone.
In the second-half Tivoli, who had been on the receiving end of most of the fouls, as the crowd begged referee Hughill Thompson to let the game flow, went down to 10 men after Victor Thompson was given his second yellow card for a late challenge.
Even with 10 men Tivoli never looked pressed by Harbour View, and Roland Dean, who had frightened them with his pace, was brought down by Jermaine Taylor, who was duly cautioned on the right side of the field close to the touchline.
FREE KICK
From that position, Jackson curled his left-footed free kick wickedly around goalkeeper Ryan Thompson, who just followed the ball into his own net.
While Thompson's reaction to Jackson's free-kick was comical, it couldn't have been said to have been his fault, but the second was a different story.
Steve Green, who had been threatening with shots from a distance since the beginning of the second half, drove a ball from an angle on the right flank towards Thompson's far post that he made a hash of trying to gather.
The spill was picked up by Mills, who had an easy task of tapping the ball home.
After the restart produced by the goal, Robert Scarlett, in frustration, hit Denroy Gordon with an elbow and was ejected to take away Harbour View's numerical advantage.
When the teams went back to being level it was about Tivoli, until Harbour View coach Donovan Hayles brought on Akeem Priestly, Marcelino Blackburn and Fraser, who began swarming forward with the ball and closing Tivoli when they had the ball.
Eventually the pressure, along with Tivoli's carelessness led to a goal.
Gordon played a ball back to his goalkeeper from the half-line. Edsel Scott then returned the ball to Gordon, who lost the ball to Fraser, who surged through on goal and chipped a ball over the approaching Scott.
After the game Hayles seemed befuddled about his team's performance.
"It was a disappointing end to the season after showing so much promise throughout. I was expecting a much better performance but these are unexplainable situations."
Tivoli's manager Brian Rose said his team was well prepared for the tie.
"For the last two weeks we've been doing a lot of speed work, a lot of marking, a lot of tracking and it has paid off."
